MCHS recreates a Victorian playtime

Wednesday

Oct 26, 2011 at 12:01 AMOct 26, 2011 at 1:55 AM

Former Oneida High School teacher Mary Jeanne Bialas, aided by the audio visual talents of her husband Sterling Oddo and Oneida High School freshman Lexi Bennett, recently described some of the ways the people of the past enjoyed recreational activities in a special event at the Madison County Historical Society in Oneida.

Mike Jaquays

Back in the late 1800s and before modern technology, recreational offerings were much more imaginative than today, said former Oneida High School teacher Mary Jeanne Bialas.
“Today’s movies are so graphic they leave nothing to the imagination - back then everything was left to the imagination,” she explained during her Oct. 16 presentation at the Madison County Historical Society’s Cottage Lawn headquarters in Oneida.
Bialas, aided by the audio visual talents of her husband Sterling Oddo and Oneida High School freshman Lexi Bennett, 14, in period dress, described some of the ways the people of the past enjoyed recreational activities in a special event to open the society’s new Victorian leisure time exhibit. She also noted just how important the Victorians would become to the people of today.
“We like to believe that everything we have today is because of us, however much of what we do today comes from the 1800s,” Bialas explained, noting trips to the State Fair and games like jacks and cribbage were all created during the era. “The Victorians were a smart bunch of people.”
She told of the different recreational opportunities in Madison County for the different classes of people, explaining how a wealthy middle-aged businessman with a trophy wife might spend the day at the Chittenango Spa for $3. There were many more leisure activities for men than women, although women were allowed to play croquet because it was a game of the mind rather than strength.
With those hoop skirts, tight corsets, and 35 pounds of undergarments, the women weren’t agile enough to do much else. They couldn’t have played basketball if their lives depended on it, Bialas said.
The upstairs exhibit features all kinds of Victorian Era playtime relics, including a big wheeled bicycle, Victorian games and toys, a daguerreotype camera, and the “magic-lantern” projector. Bialas admitted an affinity for the old-fashioned playthings.
“Wouldn’t it be fun to play the Victorian way? I think so,” she said.
MCHS Executive Director Sydney Loftus said the leisure exhibit will be up through March or April. The Madison County Historical Society is located at 435 Main Street and open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Guided house tours are $5 or free for young people 12 and under and for MCHS members.
For more information, call them at 363-4136 or log on to: www.mchs1900.org.